Women Office Holders in Kansas, 1872-1912

C. J.. M. Sharon's Campaign for County Superintendent of Schools, 1872

Mary Page Wright's Campaign for County Superintendent of Schools, 1874

Rice, Emily S.

Emily S. Rice was elected as County Clerk for Harper County, Kansas in 1884 and served until 1888. Although Kansas was often progressive in matters of women's rights, since 1874 dissenters had challenged women's right to hold elective offi…

May Burbank Wade's Campaign for Mayor, 1896

Wade, May Burbank

In 1896 Mary Burbank Wade was elected Mayor of Ellis, Kansas. Coming nine years after Susanna Salter's election in Argonia, Kansas, Wade, like the other now-numerous women holding city and county office, found that the national press scarc…

McGill, Alice

Alice McGill was elected as register of deeds (circa 1900) for Graham County, Kansas. She was one of several women to hold this position in Kansas in this period. Elected by all-male voters, these women often proved themselves in lower, ap…

Webster, Ellen

Kansas ' first legislature, in 1861, gave women the right to vote in school elections. In 1872 Ellen Webster became County Superintendent of Public Instruction in Harvey County, Kansas. She took the oath of office in June, an event noted o…

Sharon, Mrs. C. J. M.

Mrs. C. Sharon was elected Marion County (Kansas) Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1872. She was re-elected in 1874. The state legislature had voted Kansas women school election suffrage in 1861. Sharon was one of several women who …

Mary A. Higbey's Campaign for County Superintendent of Instruction, 1875

Mary A. Higbey's Campaign for County Superintendent of Instruction, 1877